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Self-help: the state and peasant leverage in Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Frank Holmquist
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Extract

The literature on general peasant–state relations in history, in Africa today, or in Kenya in particular, tells us that the peasants have little systematic political leverage over state policy. While I broadly agree with this assessment, I would like to comment on an exception. The changing nature of self-help in Kenya is analysed in order to argue, first, that peasants, in collaboration with other classes in self-help, have had some leverage on state policy and budgets in the realm of basic needs; second, that the fact of peasant initiative and political strength over time has served to alter subtly some aspects of everyday peasant–state relations to peasant advantage; and third, that self-help has historically been a doubleedged political sword. But, before proceeding to the Kenya context, it is essential to review theoretical and empirical aspects of peasant political weakness in contemporary Africa.

Résumé

‘Self-help’: l'état et le pouvoir de pression paysan au Kenya

Le cas de prise en charge des besoins de la communauté par la communauté est utilisé pour démontrer que les paysans ont un pouvoir de pression sur l'état en dépit des assomptions du contraire. Les coalitions paysannes avec d'autres classes ont influencé la politique de l'état ainsi que l'allocation de budgets concernant les ressources sociales, et au travers du ‘self-help’ l'etat a été forcé d'allouer plus de fonds à l'égard de ces besoins définis par les paysans, qu'il n'en aurait été le cas autrement. Egalement, l'initiative en cours de ‘self-help’ paysan a quelque peu tourné à l'avantage du paysan les aspects des relations au niveau de la gestion quotidienne du village par rapport à l'état. L'époque coloniale est utilisée pour illustrer les différentes implications politiques du ‘self-help’ tenant compte du déploiement des forces engagées. Le mouvement des écoles indépendantes Kikuyu fut un véhicule d'opposition au régime, tandis que les développements de communautés soutenus par l'état tendirent à maintenir le status quo. Le ‘self-help’ subséquent à l'indépendance est mieux nommé en tant que variété à mi-chemin, car il n'est généralement ni autonome et oppositionnel, ni strictement contrôlé par l'état et les classes dominantes. Au lieu de cela on trouve des éléments de chaque lorsque l'on considère le phénomène en tant que tel, ou lorsque l'on considère un projet en particulier. Le résultat est que le ‘self-help’ n'est pas un instrument d'un segment de la société mais qu'au contraire il embrace les contradictions multiples de l'économie politique. De récentes interventions négatives de l'état y sont discutées, mais il est avancé que le caractère fondamental de ‘self-help’ subséquent à l'indépendance n'a pas lieu de changer. Dans le contexte courant de répression politique le ‘self-help’ est regardé comme un outil de pression puissant malgré son caractère souvent compromis. Le ‘self-help’ a eut des répercussions matérielles positives pour le paysannat et il a été utilisé comme base politique d'opposition modérée à l'état et même comme activité ouverte anti-régime, réminiscente des mouvements populaires au cours de l'époque coloniale. Par conséquent le ‘self-help’ pourvoit un espace politique appréciable à une époque où cet espace est sous une pression sévère. N.B. ‘Self-help’: prise en charge des besoins de la communauté par la communauté elle-même.

Type
Interventions of the state
Information
Africa , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 72 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1984

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